1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a multispectral image capturing apparatus capable of capturing an image of at least four bands, each of which has a different spectral characteristic.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an RGB (three-band) camera has been widely used for capturing images of a subject.
In recent years, to enable an image capturing apparatus to accurately reproduce colors of a subject, there has been proposed a method of obtaining and recording more detailed spectral information of the subject in the form of images by using a multispectral camera capable of capturing images of at least four bands. Methods relating to such an image capturing apparatus capable of capturing images of at least four bands are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,864,364; 6,466,334; Jpn. Pat. Appln. Publication No. 2002-296114; Jpn. Pat. Appln. Publication No. 2003-023643; and Jpn. Pat. Appln. Publication No. 2003-087806, for example.
According to the methods disclosed in these documents, a filter having a transmittance characteristic of narrower bands than wavelength bandwidths of RGB is placed in front of a CCD image capturing device to obtain the more detailed spectral information of the subject.